India seal number-one ODI ranking after series win against South Africa

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India seal number-one ODI ranking after series win against South Africa

India have cemented their number-one ranking in the MRF Tyres ICC ODI Team Rankings after victory in Tuesday’s match in Port Elizabeth, which confirmed that they will finish the series on top of the table irrespective of how the final match in Centurion pans out.

India had entered the six-match series in second position on 119 points, two points behind leaders South Africa. After taking a 4-1 lead, India have moved to 122 points, while South Africa have dropped to 118 points.

Even if South Africa wins on Friday, India will remain No.1 on 121 points, while South Africa will end on 119 points. In contrast, if India wins the series 5-1, then they will finish on 123 points, while South Africa will end on 117 points.

Tuesday’s result has given additional context to the upcoming five-match ODI series between New Zealand and England. Irrespective of the outcome of Friday’s match between South Africa and India, if England wins all the five matches against New Zealand, then Eoin Morgan’s side will claim second position, with South Africa slipping to third.

India had started the series fully aware that they would have to win the series by 4-2 or better if they were to add No.1 ODI ranking to their No.1 Test ranking..

Virat Kohli’s side leapfrogged the Proteas into number-one position after taking a 2-0 lead, but required two more wins to ensure that they finished in this position at the end of the series. India remained on course when they won the Cape Town ODI, but South Africa pulled one back in Johannesburg to keep alive their chances of drawing the series at three-all, which, in turn, would have helped it to finish the series in number-one position.

This is the first time since October 2017 and fifth time overall that India have finished on top of the ODI rankings following the conclusion of a series since rising to the top for the first time in January 2013.

Below are the details of when India have been the number-one ranked ODI side:

Meanwhile, Afghanistan have moved ahead of Zimbabwe in 10th position after winning the third ODI in Sharjah on Tuesday. To finish in this position, Afghanistan will have to win the series, which culminates on 19 February.

MRF Tyres ICC ODI Team Rankings (as on 13 February, after fifth ODI between South Africa-India and third ODI between Afghanistan-Zimbabwe)

This "saving yourself" arguement against India is akin to the "fluke CT win" arguement against Pakistan. Both theories conjured up by insecure fans.

Totally agree. I can't comprehend why people can't take what the facts are and try to argue just for the heck of it. Fact remains Pakistan won CT'17, no argument can change that.
It's like Newton thought of gravity by fluke. Did no other apple fall in the world before that? Or nothing else fell on earth before?

Beating the number 1 ranked team in their own den and then becoming number 1 ranked team is praise worthy. However India still didn't play to its potential. There are lots of passengers in this team and its time to drop them. Iyer and Jadhav are the first two. Pandya too hasn't done anything in this series apart from those 2 wkts and 2 catches in the 5th ODI.

Beating the number 1 ranked team in their own den and then becoming number 1 ranked team is praise worthy. However India still didn't play to its potential. There are lots of passengers in this team and its time to drop them. Iyer and Jadhav are the first two. Pandya too hasn't done anything in this series apart from those 2 wkts and 2 catches in the 5th ODI.

You can scream at a brick wall and can get better response than those team management. Passengers will remain under the argument of " Who else??" which is ironical when considering you can never be sure unless you try out new faces. Anyway this team will fail if top 3 don't score.

Congrats to India, they deserve it. If they can sort out there middle order, they will be the team to beat at the WC after England.

Even if they don't, they are still the team to beat. There is no perfect team in ODI cricket right now. And India have proven that they are better than SA and Aus. Upcoming tour to England will be a good test for them - England have the more effective batting, but India have better bowling. I'm talking about ODIs only.

It was really a comprehensive series win. The game SA won because spinners could not grip the ball due to wet outfield otherwise India didn't give any chance. SA batting looks meek these days.

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"This business that it's 'up to Misbah' whether he wants to play or not â€“ that's rubbish - it's up to the selectors," Chappell said.

Even if they don't, they are still the team to beat. There is no perfect team in ODI cricket right now. And India have proven that they are better than SA and Aus. Upcoming tour to England will be a good test for them - England have the more effective batting, but India have better bowling. I'm talking about ODIs only.

Bro, our team have acute weakness in middle and lower order. This series it proved on multiple occasion when our top 3 provided solid foundation but our lower order choked and we ended up with below par total. Even the match we lost could’ve won had we score 330-340 instead of 290. Top 3 wont always come to rescue us which is why i think we are still far from best.

Lets have a look at our middle order

Rahane: He will have one good knock every 4-5 innings. He is not suitable for ODIs

Jadhav: Apart from one fluke inning, have done absolute zilch in his career. Lets not even get started on his poor fielding and dropped catches (some of them pretty easy ones). He deserves to be booted out for good.

Dhoni: Specialist keeper and mentor. His batting in this series have reminded us that he is as good as Ishant Sharma with the bat.

Hardik Pandya: Brainless slogger. He will smack a few against spinners, however against quality seamer he is sitting duck. His bowling too is just one dimensional and will always be expensive. He would hardly ever bowl out his 10 over quota.

Seriously, this is weakest lower order i have ever seen for Team India. We had fix our problem with bowling, however our batting seems to be a big weakness now, which is ironic considering how We have always been batting heavy team.

Bro, our team have acute weakness in middle and lower order. This series it proved on multiple occasion when our top 3 provided solid foundation but our lower order choked and we ended up with below par total. Even the match we lost could’ve won had we score 330-340 instead of 290. Top 3 wont always come to rescue us which is why i think we are still far from best.

Lets have a look at our middle order

Rahane: He will have one good knock every 4-5 innings. He is not suitable for ODIs

Jadhav: Apart from one fluke inning, have done absolute zilch in his career. Lets not even get started on his poor fielding and dropped catches (some of them pretty easy ones). He deserves to be booted out for good.

Dhoni: Specialist keeper and mentor. His batting in this series have reminded us that he is as good as Ishant Sharma with the bat.

Hardik Pandya: Brainless slogger. He will smack a few against spinners, however against quality seamer he is sitting duck. His bowling too is just one dimensional and will always be expensive. He would hardly ever bowl out his 10 over quota.

Seriously, this is weakest lower order i have ever seen for Team India. We had fix our problem with bowling, however our batting seems to be a big weakness now, which is ironic considering how We have always been batting heavy team.

I agree with you to the extent that we have a few issues to sort out. But they are actually all eminently solvable. And I disagree with a lot of your claims about specific players btw.

But show me a team that's stronger, overall in ODIs. In ODI cricket, there are always 3 or 4 top teams, the rest are weak. Right now, the top ODI units are India, England, Aus and SA. NZ can be a "dark horse" but they always fall short in ODIs because they lack depth on either side of the ball in their XI. And this problem isn't going away anytime soon.

Australia right now, are overly dependent on Warner, and a fat Aaron Finch, who misses almost as many games as he plays. They don't have a decent LOI spinner in their ranks.

SA, well we just pantsed them in their own house. All these excuses about form and fitness aside, I don't think QdK or Faf would have made that much difference here.

England, actually are setting the standard in ODIs on the batting side. They are, according to me, the most effective batting unit in ODIs. But their slight edge on the batting front over India, can arguably be balanced by India's better bowling unit.

There's still time for the 2019 WC, and Australia can get better from here - if they stop politicking around with their best LOI player (Glenn Maxwell) - and maybe find a couple of batsmen and a spinner. But that's not guaranteed to happen. Its easier for India to solidify their middle order, than for Australia to balance out their batting lineup.

So TLDR - as of now, India is the team to beat in ODIs. Minor flaws and all.

In a batting lineup of 11 players there is bound to be a hole somewhere ...l at present the Indians have it in the middle .... and the tail, of course !!!! So what is new ???? SA seems have throughout the batting order at present .... and the results are there for everyone to see.

I agree with you to the extent that we have a few issues to sort out. But they are actually all eminently solvable. And I disagree with a lot of your claims about specific players btw.

But show me a team that's stronger, overall in ODIs. In ODI cricket, there are always 3 or 4 top teams, the rest are weak. Right now, the top ODI units are India, England, Aus and SA. NZ can be a "dark horse" but they always fall short in ODIs because they lack depth on either side of the ball in their XI. And this problem isn't going away anytime soon.

Australia right now, are overly dependent on Warner, and a fat Aaron Finch, who misses almost as many games as he plays. They don't have a decent LOI spinner in their ranks.

SA, well we just pantsed them in their own house. All these excuses about form and fitness aside, I don't think QdK or Faf would have made that much difference here.

England, actually are setting the standard in ODIs on the batting side. They are, according to me, the most effective batting unit in ODIs. But their slight edge on the batting front over India, can arguably be balanced by India's better bowling unit.

There's still time for the 2019 WC, and Australia can get better from here - if they stop politicking around with their best LOI player (Glenn Maxwell) - and maybe find a couple of batsmen and a spinner. But that's not guaranteed to happen. Its easier for India to solidify their middle order, than for Australia to balance out their batting lineup.

So TLDR - as of now, India is the team to beat in ODIs. Minor flaws and all.

England are the firm favourites to be honest. Their batting is a level above every team at the moment. India have a fantastic top three, but zilch afterwards. You don't win tournaments due to bowling, well not unless you go on a Godly run like Pakistan did last year. England's bowling is ordinary but their batters will more than make up for it this time. They ran into a monstrous Pakistan last time, otherwise they looked well oncourse for the title.

England are the firm favourites to be honest. Their batting is a level above every team at the moment. India have a fantastic top three, but zilch afterwards. You don't win tournaments due to bowling, well not unless you go on a Godly run like Pakistan did last year. England's bowling is ordinary but their batters will more than make up for it this time. They ran into a monstrous Pakistan last time, otherwise they looked well oncourse for the title.

Let's see how the ODI series with India goes. England are contenders, even favorites for the WC for some, but by no means for all.

England are the firm favourites to be honest. Their batting is a level above every team at the moment. India have a fantastic top three, but zilch afterwards. You don't win tournaments due to bowling, well not unless you go on a Godly run like Pakistan did last year. England's bowling is ordinary but their batters will more than make up for it this time. They ran into a monstrous Pakistan last time, otherwise they looked well oncourse for the title.

England lost to India last year against almost the same Indian team on some sort of a batting slug out. All the wickets were flat and India out batted England in 2 out of 3 games. Even the third game was close with both teams scoring above 300. So don't think they are way better than India at the moment. This was the same English side which hammered Australia recently.

England lost to India last year against almost the same Indian team on some sort of a batting slug out. All the wickets were flat and India out batted England in 2 out of 3 games. Even the third game was close with both teams scoring above 300. So don't think they are way better than India at the moment. This was the same English side which hammered Australia recently.

Even I'm worried about the same. I honestly feel Rahul and Raina needs to given another chance because Rahul can play the big hits and is supremely talent and as for Raina , he is a proven middle order in the past (barring short ball vowes).

England lost to India last year against almost the same Indian team on some sort of a batting slug out. All the wickets were flat and India out batted England in 2 out of 3 games. Even the third game was close with both teams scoring above 300. So don't think they are way better than India at the moment. This was the same English side which hammered Australia recently.

I don't see the likes of Yuvraj, Dhoni and Jadhav score any meaningful runs outside India, to be fair. One of them won't even be present at the World Cup. England were more than a match though. Made about 360 odd chasing 380 I believe in one of the matches? Only other team that can do that is Australia when they have a really good day.

Also England made 320+ scores in all three matches. Thats more than good enough to win tournaments most of the time. If they get even one decent bowler before the World Cup, they'll be unstoppable.